Libby's world

For those of you who only come here to find out about my wildlife, it's been a big week for adorable rodents. The family homestead seems to have acquired a little brown rabbit. I've seen him twice now and he's a bold little guy.

The first time he was coming around the front of the house. He couldn't have been more than eight feet from me. I stood still on the porch and he stood still on the lawn - seemingly oblivious to the kids next door shouting about the bunny. We just looked at each other for a long time. I finally had to move and he scurried around the corner but I walked around to see where he went, he was waiting just a few feet away. He didn't run for cover until I moved to leave.

I saw him again as I was getting into my car the next afternoon. He saw me get back out of the car to get a closer look but didn't bound away until I moved off the driveway. Meanwhile, I came home to discover a chipmunk scampering around the yard. He was pretty brave too, sizing me up from maybe 12 feet away for a long time before he made a little zigzag circuit of the front yard. I can see why he wasn't worried. He's fast.

The deer in the meantime, which I haven't actually seen yet, have been visiting the yard. I found fresh hoof prints outside the office window and in the garden. It's odd that they don't eat the tastier plants, like the basil for instance, but they keep nibbling off the fresh strawberry leaves. It does however look like they may have eaten half the baby tomatoes off the plant. On the positive side, my spaghetti squash is throwing out its first flowers and my lilies are budding out. The one in front looks like it will be a tiger lily.

On the avian front, the bird population has exploded. I live near enough to a major road to hear the murmur of traffic but the cacophony of bird songs drowns it out until well past twilight. It feels like there's new ones every day. The cardinals still visit daily and the male serenaded me outside the office window for a long time yesterday. I also had a visit from three redheaded woodpeckers at the same time that afternoon. They spent a long time talking but not so much pecking at the tree. I hope that means that all the dead limbs have finally fallen off. The yard is full of them again already.

That aside, the best bird sighting of the week was in the family's neighborhood. I saw a female towhee for the first time in my life. Nice bird and she let me have a good look at her before she flew into the brush. I really have to get a camera.